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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23134834">Knockout</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/whisperedmemories/pseuds/whisperedmemories'>whisperedmemories</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>In Death, Uneternal [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy XV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Blood and Violence, Gen, POV Prompto Argentum</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 08:00:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,072</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23134834</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/whisperedmemories/pseuds/whisperedmemories</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompto and Ignis team up to fight some zombies in Hammerhead. </p>
<p>Takes place during Ch. 7 of "In Death, Uneternal".</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>In Death, Uneternal [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1339831</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Knockout</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Prompto was the first to step through the door of the mini <em>mart-slash-station</em>, and he pressed his back up against the wall, clutching his gun tightly against his chest. Ignis slipped into the room behind him, closing the door and stepping lightly over to Prompto.</p>
<p>He’d had enough foresight to attach a suppressor last night. He knew enough about these things to realize they flocked to the loudest, most recent noise they heard, and his gun would be valuable in keeping himself at a distance— as long as he could keep quiet enough. </p>
<p>If this many of these Infected had just happened to wander into the station without any real target, he didn’t want to find out how many could show up when they thought someone was actually <em>there</em>.</p>
<p><em>Why</em> had he volunteered to do this again? Someone like Cor or Nyx Ulric or even Gladio’s dad would have been a much better candidate to send out. Prompto was just… well, just Prompto. He wasn’t royalty, or as smart as Ignis, as strong as Gladio… but this was also his chance to prove himself.</p>
<p>The others clearly believed in him… right? If they didn’t, he wouldn’t even be doing this right now. But he was capable of fighting by Noct’s side. Capable enough for the guys to be able to count on him. He <em>had</em> to be. </p>
<p>… Even though he’d never actually killed anyone before. Even though the only targets he’d hit were in a training room with Cor and occasionally some of the glaives. Drautos had even been the one to run some of his tests, and yet he sure seemed skeptical now. </p>
<p>Had he not done a good job? Had he done something not up to standard? He’d told Cor and the others to treat him like any other Crownsguard trainee, but. </p>
<p>Ignis was gesturing at him.</p>
<p>Prompto blinked, opened his mouth to ask Ignis what the plan was, but he was hushed by Ignis’ hand covering his mouth. </p>
<p>Silence. Right. Prompto nodded and Ignis pulled his hand away to point something out.</p>
<p>Following the direction of Ignis’ finger, Prompto’s breath caught in his throat when he saw one of the Infected directly to his left, back turned toward them. It was making awful choking noises, grunting as it clipped its shoulder against a shelf.</p>
<p>Prompto rubbed his palm on his pants. He could do this. He took a deep breath, aimed for the head, and shot.</p>
<p>The creature went down hard. Its arm swung out as it fell and brought several cans down off the shelf as it collapsed. </p>
<p>Prompto didn’t have time to get a good look at it or really even let it sink in that it was dead and that he’d shot it before the other five Infected heard the commotion and started to head in the direction of the dead Infected. And by extension, him. </p>
<p>Not good. <em>Not good</em>. </p>
<p>Prompto ducked behind one of the shelves, glancing around for Ignis. Wherever he was, he wasn’t anywhere near Prompto. Still staying as low to the ground as possible, Prompto crept around the corner to the opposite side of the shelf. </p>
<p><em>Now would be a great time to calm down a bit, me,</em> he thought as he willed his the pounding of his heart to quiet enough for him to gauge the location of the other Infected or Ignis. He’d always kind of thought it was ironic that his breathing always sounded deafening to him whenever he was trying to stay silent. Like he couldn’t breathe quiet enough, like everything was too loud. Especially him. Which kind of defeated the purpose.</p>
<p>He inhaled a shaky breath and then held it. Couldn’t be loud if he didn’t breathe out, right?</p>
<p>A box of protein bars flew out from the shelf behind his head and Prompto yelped as an arm thrust its way through the shelf and gripped tightly around Prompto’s wrist, his gun clattering to the ground. </p>
<p>Ignis?</p>
<p>No. As he glanced down at the hand clasped around his arm, it definitely wasn’t Ignis’. It was one of the Infected. </p>
<p>Prompto gasped as he got a good look at the creature. It was a man, one who looked like he may have been ill before he died, but now just looked furious, and really determined to take a bite out of Prompto’s arm.</p>
<p>He could hear the quickening pace of the other four Infected running toward him.</p>
<p>Not good. If they blocked his exits, he was done for. He frantically tried to yank his arm free, but the cold, dead fingers around his wrist only tightened.</p>
<p>“Shit, shit,” he whispered, frantically. The creature yanked him again, and his shoulder caught painfully against the middle and bottom shelves, the metal digging into his exposed bicep.</p>
<p><em>That’s gonna leave a nasty scrape</em>, Prompto thought, gritting his teeth. He pulled himself backwards just enough to be able to fit his other arm through the slats of the shelf, snapped his arm back, and punched the Infected in the face. </p>
<p>The blow probably didn’t hurt it— not that Prompto was expecting it to, he totally didn’t, did undead even feel pain?— but it caused the Infected to loosen its grip just enough for Prompto to slip his arm free.</p>
<p>He dropped to his knees, crawling over to where his gun had fallen and snatched it back up off the ground. He felt better with it in his hands again, an extra line of defense between himself and the Infected trying to kill them. He might’ve gotten away from the one, but there were still five around here they had to kill.</p>
<p>And where the hell was Ignis?</p>
<p>Prompto turned and aimed between the shelves, firing a shot at the creature that had grabbed him from the next aisle. He couldn’t see if he had killed it from his angle, but he heard the telltale thump of its body against the ground, which had to be a good sign.</p>
<p>He got to his feet and pressed himself up against the register counter. He had eyes on two of the creatures, but he had no clue where the other two were. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, one of the Infected had eyes on Prompto, too. </p>
<p>They made eye contact for three very long seconds before she threw her head back, letting out a shrill cry that fell somewhere between a screech and a moan, and started running toward Prompto. </p>
<p>She never made it. </p>
<p>Almost too quickly for Prompto to even raise his gun, Ignis stepped out from behind a stack of boxes and threw his daggers straight for the woman’s head. She came to a screeching halt as the daggers embedded themselves into the back of her head.</p>
<p>Her eyes were wide, her mouth open. She reached a hand back to feel for what had stabbed her, eyes still fixed on Prompto. He wanted to look away, but he didn’t; had to keep her distracted. Had to keep the other Infected distracted, too. </p>
<p>Ignis slid up behind the woman as her mouth twisted into a snarl, pulled his daggers out, and cut off her head.</p>
<p>Prompto winced as the head hit the ground, his eyes fixed on her head as it rolled toward the counter. <em>Gods, Ignis didn’t even miss a beat. He just… </em></p>
<p>“Prompto, now!” Ignis hissed. </p>
<p>Prompto snapped out of it. He threw himself over the counter and shot the other Infected that he could see, and from this angle, he realized that there were several more dead bodies on the ground. Six total. </p>
<p>So <em>that’s</em> what Ignis had been doing. He’d just been so quiet that not even Prompto had heard him sneaking about and killing the other Infected while they were focused on Prompto. </p>
<p>Prompto licked his lips. Flicked his eyes back up to Ignis. “That’s all of them?”</p>
<p>Ignis nodded. “Are you hurt? I saw one of them had you for a moment there. I was handling some of them on my end or I would have tried to help. But,” he quirked a smile. “I rather thought you had it handled.”</p>
<p>Prompto let out a shaky laugh. “Yep!” he holstered his gun and gave Ignis shaky finger guns. “No big! Totally handled.”</p>
<p>Ignis vanished his daggers and surveyed the station. “I believe we’re done here then.” He gave Prompto a look he couldn’t quite decipher. Disappointment? Concern? “I’d like to take a look at your arm first, if I may. We can’t be too careful.”</p>
<p>Prompto was halfway back to the door when he paused to look back at Ignis. “I- I’m fine,” he said. “Really, you don’t have to…” he trailed off as Ignis directed him over to some boxes. </p>
<p>He tried not to look as he stepped over the Infected woman’s head and past her body. <em>Just don’t think about her headless body getting back up or her hand flying out to grab your leg or there being one more of them still alive and hiding, ready to grab you, or…</em>  He sat down on the boxes, setting his gun to the side as Ignis rolled up his sleeves and reached out for Prompto’s arm. </p>
<p>He let Ignis take a look with only a little hesitation. He wasn’t sure what he was nervous about exactly, but his mind only raced faster as Ignis tilted his arm around. “You’re bleeding a little here,” he said, pulling some cloth out of the armiger to clean Prompto’s upper arm where it had gotten scratched from the shelves.</p>
<p>“No bites though,” Prompto replied anxiously. </p>
<p>“No bites,” Ignis confirmed, to his relief. Prompto stood as Ignis pocketed the cloth. </p>
<p>Ignis turned to look at the door. “We should report back to the others and continue outside. Our work here is done.” </p>
<p>Prompto forced a grin and nodded. “Yep, let’s go! We’ve got nine more to take down outside, right? And we make a pretty good team, if I do say so myself.”</p>
<p>Ignis smirked. “Indeed. I’m sure His Highness would love to hear how you punched one of the Infected in the face.”</p>
<p>“You… you saw that?” Prompto was sure he was red with embarrassment, but Ignis just chuckled. </p>
<p>“Honestly Prompto, there are much safer ways to fight the Infected. That could have easily gone wrong.”</p>
<p>“Buuuut it didn’t!” Prompto chirped. </p>
<p>Ignis was right, though. He had put his fist dangerously close to the creature’s face. And if it had bitten him, it would probably be Prompto’s body amongst the other fallen Infected right now. He’d really gotten lucky this time. He had to be more careful. </p>
<p>Ignis glanced over the mart, perhaps looking for any rogue Infected or any new signs of danger now that they were no longer in the midst of a battle. Seemingly satisfied that the coast was clear, he added, “You did wonderful, Prompto.” </p>
<p>Prompto laughed a little too loudly. “Uh, pretty sure you did most of the work, dude.”</p>
<p>“Prompto,” Ignis said, and it was with that tone that meant Ignis had something to say that he’d better listen to. Prompto didn’t know what he expected, but when he looked over at Ignis, the advisor’s gaze was softer. </p>
<p>“Truly. Thank you for allowing me to assist you with this task.”</p>
<p>“I…” Prompto’s voice caught before he could finish his sentence. He cleared his throat. Tried again. “It’s nothing. Really. I mostly just ran around while you killed them. I hardly did anything. Except punch an undead guy in the face.”</p>
<p>“Regardless,” Ignis continued. “This has always been our life. But not yours.”</p>
<p>“What can I say? I just wanna do my best,” Prompto hoped he didn’t come across to strongly. He rubbed his neck. “It’s just, Noct is my best friend. And I’m serious about this Crownsguard thing. I trained a lot for it.”</p>
<p>Ignis smiled fondly. “I know. Noct has told me on numerous occasions.” </p>
<p>“He did?” Prompto asked.</p>
<p>Ignis nodded. </p>
<p>Prompto glanced down, trying to think of something to say to that, but Ignis stepped back over to the garage door. </p>
<p>“Shall we?”</p>
<p>He nodded and followed Ignis as the two of them headed back, still a bit breathless and running entirely on adrenaline, to return to the others. Neither of them spoke, but even though Prompto had brushed it off out loud, his head was buzzing with Ignis’ praise. He was proud of him. Ignis was proud of <em>him</em>. He hoped the others would be, too. </p>
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